ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - German journalist Tobias Huch, author of a bestselling book on the Kurds, has sharply criticized US and European policies toward the Kurds and urged Kurdish political leaders to unite amid instability in Syria and Iraq.
In an interview with Rudaw's Nalin Hassan last week, Huch accused the United States of “treason” and said Western countries had “sold" the Kurds in past political deals, particularly after the Kurdistan independence referendum.
"The Kurds are good partners, serious partners," he said.
He described Western countries’ opposition to the Kurdish independence referendum in 2017 as "the first time they sold the Kurds for oil."
Huch said he does not trust the interim Syrian government, which is incorporating Kurdish-led autonomous institutions into Damascus under a US-brokered agreement that he described as “treason.”
The agreement was struck after the Syrian Arab Army and affiliated forces captured swaths of Kurdish-controlled land and resources during a large-scale offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava).
He urged US President Donald Trump to back autonomy for local governments and the SDF.
Trump "has to support the Kurdish people and Rojava and especially the SDF to build a region like here in Bashur [the Kurdistan Region]," Huch said.
The US recently strengthened ties with the interim Syrian government and ended its long-time partnership with the SDF, which defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria alongside a US-led military coalition in 2019.
In his book, ‘Kurdistan: How an Oppressed People Stabilize the Middle East,’ Huch drew on his field experience as a journalist and humanitarian worker to examine Kurdish history, culture, the struggle for self-determination, and their pivotal role in the fight against ISIS.
Huch, who founded a humanitarian organization, Liberaid, to support ISIS refugees in Iraq, called the Kurds “the most powerful partners in the fight against terrorism, especially against Daesh [ISIS]. And now I see nothing from the European Union,” he said.